“You know, Audra. This is kind of pointless. I’m hiring a nanny. She’ll take care of Joshua.” He handed Joshua to her and headed for the door.
“Yes, but—”
“No buts.” He didn’t hear the rest of her protest as he walked out of the nursery. He’d think long and hard about the potential damage he could inflict on Joshua before he’d be back.
If he came back at all.
CHAPTER SIX
WHEN Audra brought a clean and bathed Joshua into the kitchen on Wednesday morning, Joyce greeted her.
“Good morning, Audra.”
“Joyce?”
“I’m working Wednesdays so your mom can care for the little one.” She handed Audra a mug of coffee. “She said to tell you to bring him into her office. And then Dominic asked that you have breakfast with him.”
Audra’s heart stopped. He wanted to have breakfast with her? Oh, Lord. He was either going to apologize or fire her. And after the way he’d walked out the other day she was expecting to be fired.
Of course, Dominic had a way of surprising her. She hadn’t thought he wanted any involvement with the baby at all, and he’d at least made an attempt with Joshua. It had been push and pull with him right from the beginning. If he held to his normal pattern, Monday he pushed and today he’d pull. He would apologize and be back in the nursery that night.
She took the mug of coffee and rushed through the short hall in the back of the mansion to her mom’s office. As she stepped into the room, her mom rose. “Good morning, sweet baby,” she said, holding out her hands to take Joshua.
“Hi, Mom. Can’t talk. Dominic has requested my presence at breakfast.”
Mary grimaced. “He’s been up since five, sitting in the dining room reading the paper.” She glanced at her watch. “For two hours. You might want to get a hitch in your get-along.”
Audra nodded and raced out of her mother’s office. If he had gotten over what had panicked him, wanted to apologize and wanted to arrange a time to be with Joshua that night, she couldn’t afford to miss this chance. Knowing it would take her at least twenty minutes to shower and dress, and considering the potential decline in Dominic’s mood if she made him wait another twenty minutes, she decided to eat breakfast in her baggy pajama bottoms and oversize T-shirt, and ran through the kitchen, retracing the path from her mother’s office.
She made it to the swinging door that connected the kitchen and dining room in what she considered to be record time. With a bump of her shoulder, she opened it, burst into the “every day” dining room and stopped dead in her tracks.
She’d never seen this room before, but had been told it was a simpler version of the formal dining room. Audra had expected something casual and homey. Instead the room screamed old money. The pale blue and delicate yellow tapestry cushions of the chairs corresponded with the blue-and-yellow pattern on the china and the yellow of the walls. An oval taupe-, beige-and sand-colored Oriental rug sat on the hardwood floors below the table. She swallowed.
“Good morning.”
Dressed in a black suit, white shirt and red print tie, Dominic sat at the head of the table, reading the paper, looking very much like a lord or prince or maybe even a king.
She swallowed again, suddenly understanding why the worn clothing she used as pajamas seemed so strange to him. Luxury wasn’t something he indulged in every once in a while. Luxury was a way of life for him.
“Are you joining me for breakfast?”
Realizing she was standing staring at him and his surroundings like an idiot, she headed for the place that had been set, assuming it had been arranged for her.
“I was told you commanded my presence.”
He chuckled. “Not hardly. I have a feeling no one commands you to do anything.”
“You should talk!”
“Excuse me?”
Audra nearly groaned. Why did she keep pushing him? She took a breath as she sat at her place at the table. “I’m sorry, but you’re a heck of a lot worse than I am when it comes to doing what you want when you want.”
Sherry, one of the downstairs maids, appeared with a plate and set it in front of Audra.
“I hope you don’t mind. I asked Joyce to prepare the same breakfast for you as I’m having. It simplifies things for her.”
She glanced at the plate of eggs and bacon. A funny feeling settled in her chest. All right. So he was considerate with the staff? It still didn’t help Joshua one iota.
But she’d done enough back talk already with that one slip. “No. I don’t mind. This is great.”
He folded the newspaper. “Unfortunately, because it took you so long to get here, I’m done eating and need to get moving.”